| | By John Oram in California @ Tuesday, March 03, 2009 4:38 AM
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| | At Intel’s executive briefing centre in Santa Clara on 2 March, Intel and TSMC (Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company) have announced a strategic alliance. The two companies are bringing the Intel Architecture and the TSMC technology platform together.
 Intel is porting its Atom processor CPU cores to the TSMC technology platform including processes, IP (intellectual property), libraries, and design flows. Intel’s executive vice president and resident evangelist, Sean Maloney, said that TMSC embedded customers who want to add the Atom core to their SoC (system-on-a-chip) feature set will now have 'previously unforeseen' advantages.
He emphasized that Intel will maintain full control of the Atom core IP and will decide which OEM and ODM manufacturers will benefit from the collaboration. TSMC will not be selling the Atom CPU as a standalone SKU.
The collaboration will greatly expand the market for Intel’s embedded x86 processors. TSMC benefits by extending its technology platform to serve the Intel Architecture market segments.
TSMC is the world’s largest dedicated semiconductor foundry, and the first to provide 40nm production capabilities. Its corporate headquarters in Hsinchu, Taiwan shared in the announcement. The company will contribute mature engineers who have in-depth experience developing new custom SoC products.
Rick Tsai, CEO of TSMC, said that they will provide IP libraries, work flow designs, and direct access to existing customers. Tsai explained that TSMC has a mature customer base who regularly calls upon them to develop customized products. Intel and TSMC have worked together for the past fifteen years on various projects, but neither Tsai nor Maloney elaborated on what those specific past projects were.
Anand Chandrashekar, general manager of Intel's Ultra Mobility division, said that the relationship will be a non-exclusive one. He explained that the MOU (memorandum of understanding) will put the Atom core squarely into the embedded SoC marketplace. Consumer electronics like mobile Internet devices, smartphones and the rapidly expanding low-cost netbooks and nettops are candidates. Chandrashekar said that hand held and smartphones is a major market that is opening up. He admitted this collaboration will help Intel Atom overcome its higher power consumption than the ARM version 11 family experiences.
Maloney circumvented the question of whether the final product will be on 40nm or 32nm. He said that by now, everyone should be aware of Intel’s $7 billion investment last month in the US fab facilities, and have heard of the engineering demonstration of the 32nm core in February. Both Tsai and Maloney said the deal took nearly three years to pull together and now they want to move forward quickly. No one would answer questions as to who the first customer for the Atom SoC collaboration with TSMC will be.
Several questions revolved around whether this new direction would change the Atom roadmap for Moorestown. Instead, Maloney said it would expedite Atom becoming a widely used processor in products that no one ever thought of using it in.
TSMC’s slogan is: 'Innovation is our passion'. Its website claims: “TSMC places quality and precision above all else to create market leading integrated circuit wafers.” Their help-wanted ads illustrate the kind of people they seek to employ to make their mission statement a reality. TSMC requires a Master's or Doctorate degree in electronics engineering or physics, eight years’ work experience, five in device technology development, and fluency in English and Mandarin. Will Intel employees be taking language lessons soon?
Even with top quality employees, TSMC’s recent financial performance parallels the global economy. Compared to their 2008 third quarter revenues, fourth quarter results represent a 30.6 per cent decrease. The drop was blamed on a deepening worldwide economic recession and customers’ inventory adjustment. The company cited a sharp decline in the demand for semiconductors across all applications. Thinking positively, Dr Tsai said at the meeting: “We expect this collaboration to foster overall semiconductor growth.'
ITExaminer sees the Intel and TSMC collaboration as putting a road block in ARM’s quest for a port of Microsoft’s latest Windows 7, or “Big Windows”, as ARM’s CEO Warren East calls it. X
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